Until March 8, young filmmakers from the region will be able to sign up for the 18th edition of the program Talents Sarajevo held with the support of CE Media, which explores the impact of artificial intelligence / AI on cinema, Klix.ba informs.

The Sarajevo Film Festival has invited young filmmakers and film critics from Southeastern Europe and the South Caucasus to submit their applications for the program Talents Sarajevo, which this year is being held under the motto ART/FICIAL. Directors, producers, actors, scriptwriters, directors of photography, editors and film critics from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, BiH, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, Georgia, Croatia, Cyprus, Kosovo, Hungary, Malta, Moldova, Romania, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine can apply for participation in the program.

Talents Sarajevo, which is held as part of the 13th edition of the SFF, will be held between August 16-23 and some of the programs will start online even prior to the festival itself.

In just a few years, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) has evolved from a sci-fi concept into a universal element of our everyday life. And even though it's clear that we are far from the dark scenario 'people vs. machine' (from HAL 9000 to the unstoppable Terminator), AI is still not spared the catastrophic rhetoric. According to some, it has heralded nothing less than the end of creativity as an essential human trait. Therefore, everything produced by AI is just 'a travesty of true art' that inevitably leads to the destruction of culture and humanity.

ART/FICIAL intends to question that apocalyptic narrative in the relationship between AI and cinema. In artificial intelligence, instead of the enemy of creativity, we see a technological milestone that will re-shape film but not destroy it. Like all past technological achievements, AI will have both positive and negative consequences and the first step in dealing with them is its demystification: AI is a tool whose effects depend on the people using it.

And while most of the information about the impact of AI on the film industry comes from Hollywood, ART/FICIAL intends to explore local / regional experiences in this regard as well. The question is to what an extent and in what way AI is present in the film region covered by the SFF? ART/FICIAL has invited emerging regional film creatives to join the Talents Sarajevo program in exploring the encounter between AI and film, taking into consideration their own experiences of working with AI, or, on the contrary, the reasons not to use AI.

Launched in cooperation with the International Film Festival in Berlin and the Berlinale Talents program, Talents Sarajevo has grown into a regional meeting place and a training ground for promising filmmakers. And with its 18th edition, Talents Sarajevo continues to offer a wide selection of lectures, moderated expert talks and interactive panel discussions as well as project laboratories, studio programs and workshops.